Best Prince album?

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Poll Results

OptionVotes
Sign 'O' the Times 34
Purple Rain 26
Dirty Mind 16
Parade 12
1999 6
The Black Album 2
;_; 2
Controversy 2
some bootleg1
Around the World in a Day 1
Prince 1
3121 0
Musicology 0
NEWS 0
The Rainbow Children 0
Rave Un2 0
The Truth 0
New Power Soul 0
Emancipation 0
Chaos and Disorder 0
Gold Experience 0
Come 0
Diamonds and Pearls 0
Graffiti Bridge 0
Batmang 0
Lovesexy 0
For You 0


abanana, Sunday, 18 March 2007 22:33 (eighteen years ago)

Sometimes the conventional wisdom is correct.

Oilyrags, Sunday, 18 March 2007 22:48 (eighteen years ago)

What's the conventional wisdom? Sign O'?

baaderonixx, Sunday, 18 March 2007 22:49 (eighteen years ago)

That's my conventional wisdom anyway.

Oilyrags, Sunday, 18 March 2007 23:03 (eighteen years ago)

Same here.

If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Sunday, 18 March 2007 23:29 (eighteen years ago)

I'll go for the Black Album, because it has a song on it dedicated to Bobby George

Keith, Sunday, 18 March 2007 23:32 (eighteen years ago)

i picked 1999

chaki, Sunday, 18 March 2007 23:43 (eighteen years ago)

wish i could vote for the double-sided budget-line cassette of dirty mind/controversy that an old girlfriend used to have.

tipsy mothra, Monday, 19 March 2007 00:04 (eighteen years ago)

I am tremendously boring and prefer Purple Rain.

The Reverend, Monday, 19 March 2007 00:28 (eighteen years ago)

I hesitated around the So'tT, bobbing a few up and a few down. Then the "Housequake" beat ran through my head, and I clicked on the last "dunk" of dunk-da-dada-da-dunk.

bendy, Monday, 19 March 2007 00:28 (eighteen years ago)

The Black Album is the only one I still listen to. Still great. Back in college my friends and I listened to our bootleg copy endlessly. So good.

professor ganson, Monday, 19 March 2007 01:27 (eighteen years ago)

Dirty Mind is my fave.

The Brainwasher, Monday, 19 March 2007 01:57 (eighteen years ago)

Depends on the day: Prince, Dirty Mind, Purple Rain, Sign 'O' the Times.

Andy K, Monday, 19 March 2007 02:04 (eighteen years ago)

I voted same as The Brainwasher.

James Redd and the Blecchs, Monday, 19 March 2007 03:08 (eighteen years ago)

I very unsurprisingly voted for SOTT but Prince might be his most underrated.

Matos W.K., Monday, 19 March 2007 09:10 (eighteen years ago)

Batmang?

Mark G, Monday, 19 March 2007 09:17 (eighteen years ago)

i'm doing Dirty Mind, too..

poortheatre, Monday, 19 March 2007 09:38 (eighteen years ago)

Parade or 1999

MusicLover, Monday, 19 March 2007 10:10 (eighteen years ago)

Voted for "Purple Rain" although "3121" is surprisingly high on my list.

Geir Hongro, Monday, 19 March 2007 10:13 (eighteen years ago)

Prince has, like, 4 songs on it. "I Wanna Be Your Lover", "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad", "Bambi", & "I Feel For You", and the rest isn't even interesting enough to be bad.

The Reverend, Monday, 19 March 2007 10:17 (eighteen years ago)

Dirty Mind

kornrulez6969, Monday, 19 March 2007 16:47 (eighteen years ago)

wish i could vote for the double-sided budget-line cassette of dirty mind/controversy that an old girlfriend used to have.



Oh man...that would make for a double LP better than the sum of the two - even better than 1999 or SoTT to my ears. And it'd get my vote, too.

As it is, I'm in a new-wave mood so I'll choose Controversy, tho my usual instinct is to say Purple Rain

Myonga Vön Bontee, Monday, 19 March 2007 17:45 (eighteen years ago)

On a level playing field I'd probably go for SOTT, but I'm voting for the self-titled album because it really is underrated (and a sentimental favorite, since it was weirdly enough the first Prince album I ever bought). The Reverend is sleeping on "When We're Dancing Close And Slow" and "It's Gonna Be Lonely."

Alex in Baltimore, Monday, 19 March 2007 18:02 (eighteen years ago)

The Reverend is sleeping on "When We're Dancing Close And Slow" and "It's Gonna Be Lonely."

That is exactly what he is doing.

Andy K, Monday, 19 March 2007 18:07 (eighteen years ago)

Can't decide between Purple Rain, SotT, Love Symbol or whatevs, or some bootleg.

Jordan, Monday, 19 March 2007 18:49 (eighteen years ago)

I will always pick Parade.

HI DERE, Monday, 19 March 2007 19:16 (eighteen years ago)

The Reverend is sleeping on "When We're Dancing Close And Slow" and "It's Gonna Be Lonely."


I agree with this statement. They do put me to sleep.

The Reverend, Monday, 19 March 2007 23:17 (eighteen years ago)

1. Parade
2. Sign O The Times
3. 1999
4. (8 way tie for 4th place)
For You
Prince
Dirty Mind
Controversy
Purple Rain
Around the World in a Day
The Black Album
Lovesexy

nicky lo-fi, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 15:53 (eighteen years ago)

1. Parade
2. Sign O The Times
3. 1999

Three amazing albums – I can’t think of any artist/band with a stronger top 3 profile.


MusicLover, Friday, 23 March 2007 12:30 (eighteen years ago)

Our local Fopp (and hence possibly yours, if you're British) is currently selling Lovesexy for 3 quid. It's not half as strong as I remember it.

mike t-diva, Friday, 23 March 2007 15:30 (eighteen years ago)

SIGN O IS THE WINNER

abanana, Sunday, 25 March 2007 12:27 (eighteen years ago)

Parade wuz robbed.

Noodle Vague, Sunday, 25 March 2007 12:32 (eighteen years ago)

i'm glad to see other people loving Prince! it sounds so gorgeous and it does too have songs. never got why its been written off. i guess it works for somebody's narrative.

artdamages, Sunday, 25 March 2007 13:07 (eighteen years ago)

I didn't vote. If I had, would have voted for Dirty Mind, easy. Second place: either Controversy or Prince, both underrated forever.

xhuxk, Sunday, 25 March 2007 13:41 (eighteen years ago)

I would have picked Purple Rain

Moodles, Sunday, 25 March 2007 15:47 (eighteen years ago)

Good to see all the love for Parade, though I voted for Sign.

If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Sunday, 25 March 2007 23:01 (eighteen years ago)

nine months pass...

Someone here encouraged me to try Prince's "Dirty Mind" album. I can't remember what thread it was.

So I tried Dirty Mind (from 1980) and I really loved the last three tracks on that especially. There's about twice on that album when I get a Beatles feeling, it's weird, but I gotta credit the man, cause that's cool!

I found the "1999" album at the store today (last time I heard that whole thing was 1985, though I never owned it, I confess) but I'm dying to have "Controversy" now. Though I swear I used to have the cassette of that and tried it before.

The self titled '79 album is only good for "I Wanna Be Your Lover" & "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad" both of which I could play about 500 times and never get tired of them.

I haven't actually heard his proper first album.

I saw Wendy & Lisa speak on that MTV thing on the extras on the 2nd DVD of the double DVD of Purple Rain and I gotta tell you those girls...I don't give a shit whether they are lesbians or not those girls turn me on from the minute they hit the screen. They are the shit.

But about the Purple Rain album...now seriously he never got better than that, did he? Come on admit it!!! I was 13 when that came out and I love it every bit as much now as I did then. No way in hell Prince could be any better than that. Impossible.

Bimble, Saturday, 5 January 2008 23:46 (seventeen years ago)

Controversy is kind of a bizarre album, even as far as Prince goes. Lots of insane ranting and misguided politicking, but it has "Do Me Baby" and "Jack U Off" and the title track, so entirely worth it of course.

For You has "Soft & Wet", which is a great-in-its-own-right trial run for "I Wanna Be Your Lover", a couple sublime proto-Babyface ballads, and a bunch of mucking around trying to find his sound.

If we did this poll today, I'd change my vote to Dirty Mind.

The Reverend, Sunday, 6 January 2008 02:58 (seventeen years ago)

"Private Joy" is awesome on Controversy.

Davey D, Sunday, 6 January 2008 03:25 (seventeen years ago)

RONNIE TALK TO RUSSIA BEFORE ITZ TOO LATE

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Sunday, 6 January 2008 03:27 (seventeen years ago)

oh my god I think I was a virgin until I heard Controversy. I don't understand what happiness this album is causing my ears. I'm in terrible awe.

Bimble, Sunday, 6 January 2008 03:32 (seventeen years ago)

Can someone explain why this album is so brilliant a person can barely speak about it?

Bimble, Sunday, 6 January 2008 03:34 (seventeen years ago)

I think I'm going to put Controversy on the stereo right now.

The Reverend, Sunday, 6 January 2008 03:36 (seventeen years ago)

The self titled '79 album is only good for "I Wanna Be Your Lover" & "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad"

"Sexy Dancer" says hi.

The Brainwasher, Sunday, 6 January 2008 04:06 (seventeen years ago)

But I still don't have the first album! I feel so incomplete!

Bimble, Sunday, 6 January 2008 05:06 (seventeen years ago)

three years pass...

Did anyone buy the Japanese enhanced CD version of this? I can't make mix CDs with these songs because they are so faint, but I read somewhere that I could never take the place was a radio edit. Thanks for any opinions

Iago Galdston, Tuesday, 12 April 2011 01:05 (fourteen years ago)

sorry, sign of the times. thks

Iago Galdston, Tuesday, 12 April 2011 01:05 (fourteen years ago)

Wasn't the "Black Album" so much cooler back when it was still a bootleg?

Lee626, Tuesday, 12 April 2011 02:19 (fourteen years ago)

yes, alot of its aura in retrospect seems to have come from its being a boot--i find its production (or lack thereof) hard to listen to

Iago Galdston, Tuesday, 12 April 2011 02:35 (fourteen years ago)

So had he just pretty much given up on the U.S. at this point? According to wiki re: 20Ten:

As of April 2011, no plans for a U.S. release have even been announced.

'what are you, the Hymen Protection League of America?' (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, 12 April 2011 03:32 (fourteen years ago)

The Black Album is one of my favourites actually, I was totally repelled by the production the first time I heard it too. How did Parade beat 1999 in this poll?

also, lol at someone thinking Bob George is about Bobby George the darts player. :D

historyyy (prettylikealaindelon), Tuesday, 12 April 2011 12:10 (fourteen years ago)

xxxpost: i "acquired" that sign o' the times and it's bizarre. sound is much fuller than the original issue, BUT there's all these different mixes on the thing some of which i don't like as much as the original.
just purchased a new Japanese issue of dirty mind though that sounds awesome

Marquis de Sade (outdoor_miner), Tuesday, 12 April 2011 13:26 (fourteen years ago)

Prince is playing 21 shows at the LA Forum starting this Thursday. Tickets are inexpensive ($25 each!). Snagged some this morning!

Stockhausen's Ekranoplan Quartet (Elvis Telecom), Tuesday, 12 April 2011 22:38 (fourteen years ago)

danggg

tylerw, Tuesday, 12 April 2011 22:43 (fourteen years ago)

21 shows?!?

Hey Look More Than Five Years Has Passed And You Have A C (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 12 April 2011 22:50 (fourteen years ago)

there's only 3 shows guys

in my world of loose geirs (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 12 April 2011 23:09 (fourteen years ago)

April 14, 21 and 22

in my world of loose geirs (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 12 April 2011 23:14 (fourteen years ago)

there's only 3 shows guys

The first press release was kinda mangled as it implied that all 21 shows would be at the Forum, but Quoting from here

Pop star Prince is planning to perform 21 shows of his "Welcome 2 America Live" tour in Los Angeles, Live Nation said Monday.

Three shows have been announced -- April 14, 21 and 22 will take place at the Los Angeles Forum.

The dates and locations of the additional concerts will be announced later, the concerts' promoters said.

"In an effort to make the show affordable for all of his fans, Prince has declared that roughly 85 percent of all tickets will be available at $25, inclusive of all service fees," Live Nation said in a news release. "Prince has taken a different approach with his concerts, announcing shows a matter of days before they happen, but the fans have come out in full force and shown their support."

Stockhausen's Ekranoplan Quartet (Elvis Telecom), Wednesday, 13 April 2011 01:16 (fourteen years ago)

three years pass...

Then Play Long finally gets to Prince, at last: http://nobilliards.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/prince-lovesexy.html

agincourtgirl, Thursday, 26 February 2015 14:19 (ten years ago)

1. Parade
2. Sign O The Times
3. 1999

Three amazing albums – I can’t think of any artist/band with a stronger top 3 profile.

I love Prince but 1) these aren't necessarily his best 3 albums for me and 2)Stevie Wonder's
- Talking Book
- Innervision
- Songs in the key of life

AlXTC from Paris, Thursday, 26 February 2015 14:53 (ten years ago)

It's two of his three best, though (third being Purple Rain instead of 1999)

DJP, Thursday, 26 February 2015 15:43 (ten years ago)

my top 3 rn would prob be purple, dirty, parade

a date with density (Jon Lewis), Thursday, 26 February 2015 15:46 (ten years ago)

Calling Parade a top 3 Prince is like calling Secret Life of Plants one of Stevie's top 3.

Eric H., Thursday, 26 February 2015 16:11 (ten years ago)

Jon Lewis on the money, Eric H. off the money.

Ad Strawmanem (Old Lunch), Thursday, 26 February 2015 16:20 (ten years ago)

I sometimes think Parade might be my favorite, and then I think, wait, that can't possibly be right, and then I listen to it again and think, yeah, it might be my favorite.

Ad Strawmanem (Old Lunch), Thursday, 26 February 2015 16:21 (ten years ago)

Gah, I always conflate the tracklists of Parade and Around the World in my head. Parade isn't bad. But it's definitely the swing position of any Prince top 3, two slots of which have to go to Purple Rain and Sign o' the Times and fuiud.

Eric H., Thursday, 26 February 2015 16:28 (ten years ago)

I'd opt for 1999 tho.

Eric H., Thursday, 26 February 2015 16:29 (ten years ago)

Don't get me wrong, I love Parade too (and Kiss is my favourite song by anybody ever on some days !) but I don't think it would make my top 3 since, yeah, Purple Rain is difficult to put aside...

AlXTC from Paris, Thursday, 26 February 2015 16:36 (ten years ago)

I don't know why SotT isn't top 3 for me. It should be. It just isn't. Top 5, sure. Maybe I like Prince better at single-LP length.

a date with density (Jon Lewis), Thursday, 26 February 2015 16:37 (ten years ago)

This isn't to be contrarian, but I like For You the best of any of his albums.

3×5, Thursday, 26 February 2015 16:42 (ten years ago)

SotT is special since it has less smash hits than most other Prince 80s albums (and the title track is far from a favourite) but it's the whole thing that is great.

AlXTC from Paris, Thursday, 26 February 2015 16:42 (ten years ago)

SotT had 3 US top ten hits, which puts it ahead of:

1999
Around the World in a Day
Parade
Lovesexy
Batman

DJP, Thursday, 26 February 2015 16:56 (ten years ago)

oh OK, I hadn't checked how it charted, it just felt less "hit singles" than most other albums.

AlXTC from Paris, Thursday, 26 February 2015 16:58 (ten years ago)

also: "Hot Thing," "If I Was Your Girlfriend," and "Adore" got massive R&B play.

guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 26 February 2015 16:59 (ten years ago)

Didn't realized until looking just now that each album from 1999 --> The Gold Experience had at least one top 10 hit. (Well, it was Come that broke the string, but "Most Beautiful Girl in the World" was already a top 10 hit prior.)

Eric H., Thursday, 26 February 2015 17:00 (ten years ago)

to me there's no hit as big/good (since I've never really liked SotT the song) as : when you were mine, 1999, little red corvette, purple rain, when doves cry, raspberry beret, kiss, alphabet street, etc.

AlXTC from Paris, Thursday, 26 February 2015 17:02 (ten years ago)

"U Got the Look" is a fucking steamroller.

guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 26 February 2015 17:06 (ten years ago)

I feel like I'm still just learning about SotT. It's been a slow grower. And I've never quite been able to get over the hump of its lackluster first track in the way I can with Song In The Key Of Life.

Ad Strawmanem (Old Lunch), Thursday, 26 February 2015 17:10 (ten years ago)

yes it's great of course. as are many (all !) of the other songs on the album.
but, for instance, if you consider the tracklisting of "The very best of Prince" (90s tracks not included) :

1. "I Wanna Be Your Lover"
2. "1999"
3. "Little Red Corvette"
4. "When Doves Cry"
5. "Let's Go Crazy"
6. "Purple Rain"
7. "I Would Die 4 U"
8. "Raspberry Beret"
9. "Kiss"
10. "Sign o' the Times"
11. "U Got the Look"
12. "Alphabet St."

well, for me, the tracks from SotT would rank the lowest.

AlXTC from Paris, Thursday, 26 February 2015 17:12 (ten years ago)

I don't know why I always mistakenly think "The Beautiful Ones" was a single. Probably because it effing should've been.

Ad Strawmanem (Old Lunch), Thursday, 26 February 2015 17:17 (ten years ago)

"U Got the Look" is a fucking steamroller.

Also, "Girlfriend" is a serious contender for my absolutely #1 favorite Prince single OAT.

Eric H., Thursday, 26 February 2015 17:24 (ten years ago)

i thought the sample at the beginning of "lovesexy" was delia? doesn't sound anything like roger limb's stuff to my ears!

rushomancy, Thursday, 26 February 2015 20:22 (ten years ago)

ok, nvm, it is roger limb- just mis-credited a lot of places

rushomancy, Thursday, 26 February 2015 20:25 (ten years ago)

that's a bbc radiophonic sample? ha cool

a date with density (Jon Lewis), Thursday, 26 February 2015 22:06 (ten years ago)

Talking of samples,

There's a bit of a ruckus noise on "Pop Life", near the end then the music comes back in.

The exact same noise is used on Chris Hill's "Rentasanta" from 1975 or so.

Any ideas what it's from?

Mark G, Thursday, 26 February 2015 23:21 (ten years ago)


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